Allison and Daniel

Cape Cod

We've spent a lot of time down here. If you're making a weekend of it, this is what we'd actually tell a friend to do.

Osterville & around

Osterville village is a few blocks of shingled storefronts on Wianno Avenue — a good bookshop, a couple of places to eat, and an ice cream line in the evening. It takes twenty minutes to see and is worth all of them.

Head down toward Dowses Beach or Craigville for the water. In early June the beaches are still quiet, the parking is still free of the July scramble, and the light in the evening is the reason people keep coming back here.

If you want the postcard version, drive the length of Route 6A through Barnstable and Yarmouth Port — old captains' houses, antique shops, and hydrangeas in every dooryard. It is slower than Route 6 and that is the entire point.

Eat & drink

  1. Osterville

    Five Bays Bistro

    Dinner in the village

  2. Centerville

    Four Seas Ice Cream

    A Cape institution since 1934

  3. Hyannis

    The Naked Oyster

    Raw bar and bistro on Main Street

  4. Hyannis

    Spanky's Clam Shack

    On the harbor. Fried everything

  5. Hyannis

    Baxter's Boathouse

    Dockside, order at the window

  6. Hyannis

    Pain D'Avignon

    Bakery and coffee. The morning-after answer

  7. Hyannis

    Cape Cod Beer

    Local brewery and taproom

  8. Barnstable

    Mattakeese Wharf

    On the harbor, good at sunset